Martinelli economic policies a debacle

PANAMANIAN businessmen and economists have been warning or three years that the economic policies of the Martinelli government would be “a debacle.” Says a former Minister.

Fernando Aramburu Porras, an economist and former Minister of Economy, said this morning that the Panamanian Association of Business Executives (Apede) and other economists of the country warned for the last three years that the economic policies of the government ” Porras, also an ex-president of Apede, was reacting to a report on the country’s finances presented yesterday by Minister of Economy and Finance Dulcidio de la Guardia.
That report revealed that the previous administration used state funds to allegedly serve electoral interests.
“Waste and a lack of fiscal prudence of the previous administration has brought us to this situation,” said De La Guardia before the National Assembly. He added that the government ran a $1.5 billion deficit for the first six months of the year. The projected deficit for the year was $1.3 billion.
Porras recalled that there was a reckless management of public finances, while various sectors of organized civil society were calling for fiscal prudence and savings.
Fellow economist and Apede member Felipe Argote also highlighted the magnitude of the fiscal deficit built up by the government reports La Prensa.
“‘A deficit of more than $1.5 billion is similar to the cost of the Metro,” he said. “If we keep up this trend, the deficit at the end of the year will be $3 billion, an amount approaching the cost of the third set of locks for the Panama Canal.”